State scraps power line route

The PUC instead endorsed addressing short-term power needs by adding a transformer in Kendall County and upgrading existing lines between Gillespie and Lampasas counties. FuelFix.com | LivingGreenSA.com

By Zeke MacCormack :
November 10, 2010

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To the relief of many property owners from Comfort to Lampasas, state regulators moved Wednesday to scrap plans for a new 345-kilovolt transmission line in that part of the Hill Country.

The Texas Public Utility Commission instead endorsed addressing short-term power needs by adding a transformer in Kendall County and upgrading existing 138-kilovolt lines between Gillespie and Lampasas counties.

The revised project, endorsed by the parties to the case Tuesday, is expected to cost about one-fourth of the $191 million price tag for obtaining rights of way and building the 345-kilovolt lines, officials say.

"It sounds great to me," Fredericksburg Mayor Tom Musselman said of the PUC vote in Austin.

ERCOT officials concluded in August that the project wasn't needed to satisfy power demands anticipated under the state's Competitive Renewable Energy Zone (CREZ) plan, which calls for building about 2,400 miles of new 345-kilovolt lines to carry power from rural wind farms to urban centers.

LCRA Spokesman Robert Cullick said, "If we can find a solution that's cheaper and better, it's the right thing to do and we're glad to be a part of it."

The PUC action was preceded by a settlement Tuesday among the roughly 40 parties who backed the alternative plan. The PUC voted to direct staff to draft an order reflecting the settlement terms.

Although the Comfort-to-Lampasas line is dead, commission members noted that they still must pick a route for a new 345-kilovolt line to link substations in Kendall and Schleicher counties, which conceivably could pass through some of same area the commission abandoned Wednesday.

Gillespie County Judge Mark Stroeher said it's too soon to relax, especially with the Schleicher-Kendall project routing still unresolved.

"I'm not going to breathe a sigh of relief until I see them sign off on that order" approved Wednesday. "That would certainly be great for the Hill Country if that's the action they end up taking."